Roger Goodell Upholds Tom Brady's 4-Game Suspension on Appeal

if this is new evidence of bad behavior, why isn't Brady getting a longer ban?

Part of the basis of the original 4 game ban was the reluctance to cooperate and provide requested information. It's not as if the NFL is going to impose a "contempt of court" type addition based upon the intentional destruction of that evidence.

The NFL wants to be viewed as handling the matter with correct process. The NFL certainly doesn't want an ongoing spectacle involving one of it's mantlepiece players.
The NFL wants resolution.

Once again it is Kraft , Brady and the Patriots who choose to keep throwing fuel on the fire here. And although the Patriots are a key part of the NFL, they are 1 of 32 members of a league that must abide by both it's rules and decisions.

Roger Goodell Upholds Tom Brady's 4-Game Suspension on Appeal

would love to see how a real court rules on this

Really?

This is an NFL rule that has been broken, the NFL should have jurisdiction over enforcement. If a court sides by the NFL it just makes the whole incident into more of a White Bronco affair for the media. If it rules against the NFL, which it never would under the circumstances, then NFL rules are deemed not enforceable and the integrity of the game is gone. And the legacy of the parties involved doesn't change.

Roger Goodell Upholds Tom Brady's 4-Game Suspension on Appeal

Brady broke league rules and 4 is in order.

The NFL ought to have a different classification of penalty for personal conduct infractions.
Hardy shouldn't be allowed to play in the NFL. Read that his suspension was reduced because the woman he beat up couldn't be found to testify during his appeal? Time for the NFL lawyers to add some legal verbiage to the player contracts.

CFL Pick 'Em, Week Six

Lou Lamoriello new Maple Leafs GM

and I hate them more than ever once they win the cup, dammit

What?

I can dream

Ahh, right. It's all a dream.

Seriously, the Leafs have assembled what would appear top notch leadership.

Hopefully ownership doesn't succumb to TO media and fans finally give someone more than 6 months to turn a pile of steaming shit into a Hockey team. There's no foundation players, there's no leadership, and the Leafs are only in their first year of having some decent draft picks. The only pieces in place are 2 NHL quality goaltenders and possibly a budding star in Morgan Reilly.

I really doubt this group will be given 5 years it will need to make a playoff appearance.
And win a cup? There are at least 15 NHL teams whose management really have their act together, currently have strong teams, good young prospects, and are busy planning for continued success. That type of situation is at least 10 years away for the Leafs.

Lou Lamoriello new Maple Leafs GM

The Leafs have worked to assemble management with a history of organizational success and Shanahan who has been a proven winner throughout his playing career.

But .. The new coach and GM are not walking into a situation where they taking over a squad with historical talent like they did in their previous successful years. The Leafs have nobody that remotely compares to the rosters they previously inherited with current and future hofers Lidstrom, Brodeur, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Chelios, Shanahan and others.

Shanahan, Babcock, and Lou have a major challenge ahead of them with very few if any existing parts to work with. Specifically Babcock - coaches who accomplished more with less have *failed in the same position.

* although Carlyle did receive Coach of the Year votes in the year the Leafs fired him

CFL Pick 'Em, Week Five

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

Would have been interesting to see how Jordan could compliment an aging Dirk.
Now he's back to the Clippers who have a few very good players but not enough to challenge the top 3 in the West next year (SA, OKC, GS).

Jordan is a nice complimentary player but not a 1 or 2 type option. Clippers are in dire need of a 1 or 2 option whereas Dallas needs complimentary players.

CFL Pick 'Em, Week Three

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

The Leafs get rid of one of 2 pillars of their defensive problems, clear some salary cap, and create an opening for a younger player to develop.

Penguins get a talented guy who shoots the puck as good as anyone to mix in with an already offensively talented lineup. Penguins won a cup in a year when they essentially played with complete disregard for defense. A great fit for Kessel and I'd expect a lot of 6-5 type final tallies in Pittsburgh games next season.

The 11th Annual chicobangs Memorial SpoFi CFL Pick 'Em

Golden State Warriors Win NBA Title

Iguodala (like Kawhi Leonard last year) kept the best player in the game from winning the championship.

Iguodala was key both defensively and offensively. He enabled the Warriors to completely blow up the Cavs scheme of double teaming Curry every time Seth got the ball. Iggy served as a double team outlet option then essentially ran 4 on 3 drills as a second 1 (point guard).

The Cavs only success came earlier in the series when the Warriors played a lineup where Draymond Green was the outlet. Draymond can handle the ball well for a big but he is certainly no comparison to Iggy in the position.

Curry merits consideration for his unbelievable ability to draw the double and make great passes out of it. He had more turnovers than usual but was battling 2 taller and usually pretty decent defensive players.

Golden State Warriors Win NBA Title

the obvious most valuable player in the Finals (James)

James is the best player in the world and had great numbers in the series but I don't disagree with the Iguodala selection. Don't know if it was fatigue or just a sense of hopelessness but James appeared to shut it down early in games 5 and 6.

If James had some support such as a partially healthy Irving the outcome may have been different. Interestingly this is always the discussion when he doesn't win.

Golden State Exposes Cleveland in Game 4 Rout

Kerr appears to have found a lineup that can overcome the Cavs emphasis of constant physical contact on Curry and Thompson even though the Cavs are dictating the style of play and flow of the game.

The Cavs need to find a way to get LeBron a 5 or so minute blow (elapsed, not game clock time) early in 2nd and 4th quarters . Problem is they don't have anyone on the bench who can buy minutes against the warriors second string. James and Thompson have been solid throughout, Mozgov and Delladova are playing way above their normal levels of play and are contributing.
Shumpert and JR Smith have been horrible.

Enter the Women's World Cup Confidence Pool

I'd have to imagine the author has never left Toronto in his entire life and has no perspective on the rest of the country. Sucks to be him.

Possibly Toronto sportswriters just need to find something, anything, to write about with all the downtime they have covering their local teams when writers in other cities are covering the playoffs.

I'll admit Edmonton isn't my favorite Canadian city. But on my trips to Edmonton I haven't ever had to think about scheduling my golf or tennis around the smog index as I do in the "big smoke".

Good God - the Pan Am games are in Toronto? I certainly hope not during the summer/smog months. Made the mistake of playing through an alert there in a tournament and had trouble breathing for weeks afterwards. Can't imagine what it would be like to play a match or 2 of soccer in that environment.

LeBron Takes Cavaliers to NBA Finals in First Season Back

Tristan Thompson's stock certainly is on the rise

With LeBron and Irving on the court hoisting 60 shots per game the Cavs need a player like Thompson who does everything else well without the ball much more than they need Love or JR Smith. Thompson is basically a more offensively talented version of what Dennis Rodman brought to the Jordan/Pippen led Bulls.

Just imagine if the Cavs hadn't traded for Love and also had Andrew Wiggins in the mix.
Love is an exceptional player but his game duplicates skills the Cavs already have being essentially a 1st or 2nd offensive option player on a team that already has those roles filled for years to come. Wiggins running off the ball offensively is an ideal compliment to what the Cavs have and defensively he is far superior to Love.

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

Kraft Says Patriots Won't Appeal DeflateGate Punishment

I think that Kraft knows that either A) they did it, or B) there's no way in hell it can be proven that they didn't do it.

Kraft sold out the team he owns

I would expect Kraft is pretty pissed with a few folks in his own organization for not properly informing him of some important details before he went on his initial tirade against the NFL in support of those same people.

Goodell will explain that Wells overlooked something or other in his report

Unless Wells comes out with some previously unreleased information in support of the Patriots claims it's not going to happen. Imagine the damage the optics of Goodell making a back room deal to kiss Kraft's ass would create. At best, Goodell praises Kraft for making a difficult decision for the betterment of the game.

The NFLPA continues it's appeal on behalf of Brady - it's what unions do for their members.
I'd expect the appeal to be limited to the mechanics of the application of the suspension and stop short of any further investigation into Brady's involvement.

I see the outcome as Brady reluctantly agreeing to serve a reduced 2 game suspension.

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

can we all agree or explain where we disagree with this

The NFL must have a respected commissioner.

What if

Roger Goodell and Robert Kraft got together and agreed to resolve the issue internally.

The Patriots acknowledge breaking a rule that had zero impact on the outcome of a game that the offense was detected in. The NFL issues a fine and decides to review how relevant the rule is going forward.

Goodell (finally) comes across as a respected leader, and the Patriots a class organization and deserving champion.

No Wells report, no fake science, no fat guy nicknamed "the deflator".

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

admit a possibility that the case is not "clear cut"?

I guess I could approach this two ways:

I'll concur with 1).

2) would do nothing to prove the rules weren't intentionally broken.
I am assuming this is a response to proving the "Goodell and the NFL are intentionally targeting a flagship franchise (Patriots) and its most marketable player (Brady)" conspiracy theory.
The principle here is to enforce the rules of the game to ensure it's integrity.
If others are caught they should also be penalized accordingly.

When the news broke my first thought was the damage the Colts had done themselves by even mentioning anything after the way they were destroyed. Brady could have been throwing Jet-Puffed's and it would have had no bearing on the outcome. Enter Robert Kraft and his poorly executed attack on everyone non-Patriot. It's now crystal clear he did so without even investigating his own organization.
The "We are the Patriots, and we don't need to comply with or answer to anyone - We'll show the NFL who is boss" approach was and continues to be exothermic.

And unrelenting.
Until we get to the point where we are now.

It would appear Goodell and the NFL levied punishment based upon the circumstances surrounding the infraction rather than the infraction itself. A slap on the wrist penalty here would have been confirmation that the tail is wagging the dog.

NHL Playoff Pick 'Em, Round 3

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

Missing the point here.

I'll concede that Goodell has generally mishandled league PR issues during his tenure.
If you buy into Goodell being the offender in this situation then the Patriots legal representatives and spin doctors are doing a better job than the league office.

This a clear cut case of official league rules being broken and the refusal of the offending parties to provide requested information in a league investigation. Information that would allow proper penalties being applied to the appropriate parties.

Goodell did not doctor the Patriots footballs and he did not hide evidence from an investigation.

What the heck could a third/fourth/fifth party do to resolve the situation?
And if somehow the NFL was overruled on application of it's own performance rules would that be considered a positive outcome?

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

Mr. McNally is a big fellow and had the opposite goal: to lose weight. "Deflate" was a term they used to refer to losing weight.

I now am officially considering approaching the Patriots for a new keyboard and 1/8th cup of coffee. I will provide photographic proof and also allow them access to specific messages of interest on my phone they deem required to resolve the situation.

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

The whole thing looks like a team cheating, getting caught, and refusing to accept responsibility. By a repeat offender.

Forget about the rule that was broken, whether you think it has any realistic bearing on the play, etc. It's a rule that all teams are to expected to abide by. Any team that deliberately breaks a rule is doing so to get an unfair advantage over an opponent. This destroys the integrity of the sport.

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

Punishment must be harsh to hopefully help them and the league see that if you break the rules, there are consequences

Amen.

And hopefully the offenders, the NFL, and it's other members learn from this shit storm and come to the realization that all parties need to work to resolve any future occurrences appropriately together in a timely manner.

NFL Announces Punishment for Patriots' Deflated Balls

Brady has already said he will appeal. Also means the NFL will get those phone records.

If he does appeal and the phone records are revealed everyone gets the truth ... at last.

If an appeal requires the phone records be disclosed to the NFL Brady will not appeal.
He could have doused this whole event way back when before it became a huge bonfire and most likely for a rather meaningless financial penalty. He chose not to.

The truth would be preferred, but ...

I'm betting he serves the penalty and comes back ready to play. Pats will still have 7 games against weak divisional opponents to qualify for the playoffs. And they didn't do too poorly the last time Brady was out anyways.

NFL Investigator: Patriots Probably Deflated Balls on Purpose

Balls that were deliberately deflated to levels outside of the limits of the rules by Patriots employees were used during a game.

Considering it was a voluntary offering, he was offered the opportunity for his attorney to be in total control of the phone and to limit the inquiry to just a particular time period and on subject. The phone didn't need to leave the hands of him or his people for any moment at all. He chose not to even do that.

Makes no sense at all that someone would avoid the opportunity to prove their innocence.

.. Enter Brady's agent trying to deflect the entire event back on the NFL crying conspiracy. Only deepens the hole his client is already in.

The NFL conspiring to discredit one of the staples of it's brand?

Man up. Quickly. The longer this goes on the worse it gets for everyone involved.
If those involved had owned the responsibility when caught the whole issue would have been quickly dealt with.

NFL Investigator: Patriots Probably Deflated Balls on Purpose

Sources: Billy Donovan will coach the OKC Thunder

In the pre-Calipari Kentucky era Donovan won the recruiting battle in the SEC yearly. What I think elevates him above other college coaches and makes him a good fit for the NBA is his ability to get rosters loaded with top talent to play cohesively and unselfishly.

Charles Barkley: Rick Carlisle should bench Rajon Rondo permanently.

SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle

Sooner or later, one or more of these players will move to a stronger team in a more noticeable city, and then the recognition will come

Many of the best NHL players play in smaller Canadian and US markets and don't get the media play others do. True hockey fans know who the best players are and could care less about what share of media attention they get. Stamkos plays in Tampa, Benn in Dallas, Tavares for the Islanders, Giardano in Calgary .. none of whom get a lot of ink until they visit a big market and scorch their opponents. They make great money and play for highly competitive teams.

As for "strong teams in more noticeable city" - teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and the Rangers are already struggling with cap issues and can't possibly sign any of the Oilers young stars. Detroit may be the only location that fits your criteria.

SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle

Oilers have a wealth of skilled young offensive players and McDavid only adds to that.
They are in great position now to deal a highly valued player and obtain a few NHL level defensemen and defensive minded forwards to round out their squad. RNH and Hall would fetch top value but the Oilers would be stupid to deal RNH.

McDavid in Toronto? Good god, couldn't be a worse place for a young player to begin a career. Especially with the current Leafs roster filled with older overpaid players who only show up on pay day. Leafs haven't even begun rebuilding. They have a less than stellar record identifying young talent in the draft and trade away any decent young players that fall into their lap. They are at least 4 years behind where the Oilers currently are in building a competitive team.

SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle

Leafs need to somehow rid themselves of 4 or 5 players Nonis signed to high priced long term contracts with few or no interested parties.

The verdict is out on Horacek. Poor guy was brought in with a mandate and simply did what he was told.

The Leafs have drafted poorly for a long time. When they have managed to select a future all-star they have traded the player away. One wonders what the Leafs might look like with Tuuka Rask, Tyler Seguin, Alex Steen, and Dougie Hamilton on the roster instead of Kessel and Phaneuf.

Randy Carlyle certainly had a much better take on the Leafs when he was there than anyone else in the organization ... I wonder if he would consider a GM position.

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle

NCAA Men's Basketball Officiating Constitution clearly states:

Duke until proven otherwise

Duke games are normally painful to watch because of the preferential calls they receive.
Trust me, last night's game was not as bad as most are, probably because Wisconsin is an experienced squad who doesn't place themselves in many situations that give officials opportunities to blow the old Blue whistle.

If you don't believe me watch a Duke home game next year against a decent opponent.
Standard fare to need to score 20 more points than Duke from the field to be close at the end of the game.